Jeremiah 18–19

Chapter 18

The Potter and the Clay

¹The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying,

²“Arise and ^ago down to the potter’s house, and there I will announce My words to you.”

³Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something on the ¹wheel.

⁴But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make.

⁵Then the word of the Lord came to me saying,

⁶“Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Behold, like the ^aclay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.

⁷“At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to ^auproot, to pull down, or to destroy it;

^8aif that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will ^1brelent concerning the calamity I planned to bring on it.

⁹“Or at another moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to ^abuild up or to plant it;

¹⁰if it does ^aevil in My sight by not obeying My voice, then I will ^1bthink better of the good with which I had promised to ²bless it.

¹¹“So now then, speak to the men of Judah and against the inhabitants of Jerusalem saying, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Behold, I am ^afashioning calamity against you and devising a plan against you. Oh ^bturn back, each of you from his evil way, and ¹reform your ways and your deeds.” ’

¹²“But ^athey will say, ‘It’s hopeless! For we are going to follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the ^bstubbornness of his evil heart.’

¹³“Therefore thus says the Lord,

‘^aAsk now among the nations,

Who ever heard the like of ¹this?

The ^bvirgin of Israel

Has done a most ^cappalling thing.

¹⁴‘Does the snow of Lebanon forsake the rock of the open country?

Or is the cold flowing water from a foreign land ever snatched away?

¹⁵‘For ^aMy people have forgotten Me,

^bThey burn incense ¹to worthless gods

And they ²have stumbled ³from their ways,

From the ^cancient paths,

To walk in bypaths,

Not on a ^dhighway,

¹⁶To make their land a ^adesolation,

An object of perpetual ^bhissing;

Everyone who passes by it will be astonished

And ^cshake his head.

¹⁷‘Like an ^aeast wind I will ^bscatter them

Before the enemy;

I will ¹show them ^cMy back and not My face

^dIn the day of their calamity.’ ”

¹⁸Then they said, “Come and let us ^adevise plans against Jeremiah. Surely the ^blaw is not going to be lost to the priest, nor ^ccounsel to the sage, nor the divine ^dword to the prophet! Come on and let us ^estrike at him with our tongue, and let us ^fgive no heed to any of his words.”

¹⁹Do give heed to me, O Lord,

And listen to ¹what my opponents are saying!

^20aShould good be repaid with evil?

For they have ^bdug a pit for ¹me.

Remember how I ^cstood before You

To speak good on their behalf,

So as to turn away Your wrath from them.

²¹Therefore, ^agive their children over to famine

And deliver them up to the ¹power of the sword;

And let their wives become ^bchildless and ^cwidowed.

Let their men also be smitten to death,

Their ^dyoung men struck down by the sword in battle.

²²May an ^aoutcry be heard from their houses,

When You suddenly bring raiders upon them;

^bFor they have dug a pit to capture me

And ^chidden snares for my feet.

²³Yet You, O Lord, know

All their ¹deadly designs against me;

^aDo not ²forgive their iniquity

Or blot out their sin from Your sight.

But may they be ^3boverthrown before You;

Deal with them in the ^ctime of Your anger!

Chapter 19

The Broken Jar

¹Thus says the Lord, “Go and buy a ^apotter’s earthenware ^bjar, and take some of the ^celders of the people and some of the ^1dsenior priests.

²“Then go out to the ^avalley of Ben-hinnom, which is by the entrance of the potsherd gate, and ^bproclaim there the words that I tell you,

³and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O ^akings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “Behold I am about to bring a ^bcalamity upon this place, at which the ^cears of everyone that hears of it will tingle.

⁴“Because they have ^aforsaken Me and have ^bmade this an alien place and have burned ¹sacrifices in it to ^cother gods, that neither they nor their forefathers nor the kings of Judah had ever known, and because they have filled this place with the ^dblood of the innocent

⁵and have built the ^ahigh places of Baal to burn their ^bsons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, a thing which I never commanded or spoke of, nor did it ever enter My ¹mind;

⁶therefore, behold, ^adays are coming,” declares the Lord, “when this place will no longer be called ^bTopheth or ^cthe valley of Ben-hinnom, but rather the valley of Slaughter.

⁷“I will ^amake void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and ^bI will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hand of those who seek their life; and I will give over their ^ccarcasses as food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth.

⁸“I will also make this city a ^adesolation and an object of hissing; ^beveryone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of all its ¹disasters.

⁹“I will make them ^aeat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh in the siege and in the distress with which their enemies and those who seek their life will distress them.” ’

¹⁰“Then you are to break the ^ajar in the sight of the men who accompany you

¹¹and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Just so will I ^abreak this people and this city, even as one breaks a potter’s vessel, which cannot again be repaired; and they will ^bbury in Topheth ¹because there is no other place for burial.

¹²“This is how I will treat this place and its inhabitants,” declares the Lord, “so as to make this city like Topheth.

¹³“The ^ahouses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be ^bdefiled like the place Topheth, because of all the ^chouses on whose rooftops they burned ¹sacrifices to ^dall the heavenly host and ^epoured out drink offerings to other gods.” ’ ”

¹⁴Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the ^acourt of the Lord’s house and said to all the people:

¹⁵“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I am about to bring on this city and all its towns the entire calamity that I have declared against it, because they have ^astiffened their necks so ^bas not to heed My words.’ ”